Dinos and Rocks in the Southwest

The first leg of my mini parks roadtrip took me back West, deep in the heart of Texas. I drove northwest through the state, to the city of Waco, to visit a new national park, Waco Mammoth National Monument. This started out as a city park, but it is now part of the National Park System. This park is an active digsite of mammal specimens that lived in the area as early as 68,000 years ago. Most notably was a herd of Columbian Mammoths. The mammoth herd is believed to have been trapped in the mud during a flash flood. Other flooding events later brought additional mammoths to the area along with camels and a saber tooth cat. The park showcases the main dig area in a museum that is built right over the site, so I walked in with the tour group and below us were the fossils still in the ground. The most popular fossil and the coolest I saw was a big male mammoth named Mammoth Q. He is very well preserved; I could make out exactly what he looked like, tusks and all. This park was very fun and interesting. I learned a lot about mammoths and other prehistoric mammals, I saw lots of skeletons, and the tour guide was very entertaining.

Also in Texas was the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Here I got to walk through a mesa filled scrubland to see the flint quarries of the Native Americans that once lived in the area. I went on a ranger guided hike that led us to the top of a mesa. There, there were large deposits of an extra strong flint, only found in that area. The Native Americans made many quarries to gather the flint to use for tools and weapons. On the tour, we got to stand in the quarries and the refuse piles next to them, where they would throw the unusable or lower quality pieces. The flint was really pretty. It was all different shades of grey, brown, and red, and even some bluish pieces. It was also very smooth and sharp. I could see why it was so great for tool and weapon making. An exhibit in the visitors center explained that the alibates flint is stronger than steel, the main reason it was so desirable to use and trade.

The trail to the quarries at the top of the mesa was really pretty. There were great desert/scrubland plants like basketflowers, hickory, and juniper. We also saw a few tri-colored lizards. It's always nice to see different types of plants and animals than I'm used to.

About three hours northwest of Alibates is Capulin Volcano National Monument. This volcano is regarded as one of the best specimens of an extinct cinder cone volcano in the country. It is located in a once very volcanic area and it itself erupted about 60,000 years ago. This park has a road that winds all the way up to the top of the 8,100 foot tall volcano. When I got to the top, I hiked the Rim Trail, which circles along the top of volcano rim. It was a very neat trail, lots of juniper, yucca, and wildflowers. One really interesting thing was that there were tons of ladybugs along the trail, swarms of them in some parts. They were covering the plants. It was slightly aggravating to walk through; I had to swing my hands around a whole bunch. I never thought I wouldn't like ladybugs. The trail did have some really nice views of the surrounding area and inside the volcano. I also came across these webs of caterpillars. There would be spots on plants with what looked like webs covering some leaves, and when I looked closely inside, there were a bunch of small caterpillars wiggling around in there. It was fascinating.

After the Rim Trail, I did the Lava Flow Trail, which went down into the center of the volcano. There I walked past big lava rock piles from when the volcano erupted. It was really cool being inside a volcano, even an extinct one.

The Southwest brought me to some really great National Monuments. They had great stories to tell about the creation of our current landscape and the people and animals that first inhabited it.

Visit the Gallery to see my pictures from these parks and many others.

Want to have your own National Park adventure? Visit nps.gov to Find Your Park! They are closer than you think!